ok, have lap top now. As I was saying I have always had a soft spot for two strokes mostly in concept, not always practice. My last motocross bike was just at the end of the air cooled era, an '81 Kawasaki KX420. The industry was moving towards more complication with water cooled engines. I appreciated the benefits of them on paper but they brought more than I felt a club racer like myself hardly needed. Both in terms of power and complications. Truth be told most of us would have done well if we had concentrated our efforts on mastering 125cc bikes as only a few of us could fully master a 250 let alone an open classer.

Having said this, I appreciate the RG series for what it was, and also the Yamaha RZ. It was during this same era that Honda had developed the NR500 for Freddie Spencer. I remember reading a very good article on the bike - I believe it was written by Kevin Cameron of Cycle Magazine. But it may have also been in Cycle World, which would not have been Kevin at that time and right now I can't remember who their technical editor was. But no matter, the article went into great detail explaining why it was so important for Honda to develop a machine that was really a technical marvel at the time and I believe still is. It spoke of the BMP (brake means effective pressure I think) within a 2 stroke engine and a 4 stroke engine and how the 2 stroke of Kenny Roberts was essentially understressed, whereas the Honda was severly overstressed. It went on to described that acceration forces metals of the time could take etc. It was amazing. I wish I had an engineers appitude to be able to take it all in, but suffice to say, Mr Honda wanted to win on 4 strokes and that is what the engineers were tasked with.

I am with you on the talky talk thing. Its an insecurity issue within an individual. I think we benefit by being with those of superior talent, not so that we can make believe that we are like them, but because we can learn from them and improve our own personal game. As you have track experience I know you can appreciate this. Back in 2011 just after I had gotten my licence to race and started entering races, I chummed up with a racer who was 3rd in overall standings and had been for several years. Steve and I had good chemistry and always found each other at the track. Steve and I walked the track one night and he showed me his braking markers. It was incomprehensible to me at that time. But then I remembered something I heard Jackie Stewart say about racing... perception. While I might enter into panic mode, someone either more experienced or operating on a higher level may feel all is in hand and no big deal. Its very interesting.

We are seeing something like this now in MotoGP. There is something different in Marc Marquez that nobody has. He is operating at a higher level than any other racer on the grid and does so consistently. I think he stands the chance to be written along side names such as Rossi, Agostini and Hailwood.